French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [182]
For 18 small oysters prepare the sauce as follows: chop 1 small shallot very finely with a teaspoon of parsley. Cook this in a little butter in a small frying-pan until the shallot is just beginning to turn yellow. Into the pan pour pint of double cream. Let it boil for a minute, add a heaped dessertspoon of finely-grated Gruyère cheese, then a teaspoon of fine golden breadcrumbs. In a few seconds the cream will be quite thick. Season with freshly-milled pepper and a scrap of salt.
Rinse the oysters and their half shells rapidly in cold water; it is necessary to do this with the small Cornish oysters because their shells seem to chip so easily when they are opened, and little bits of shell and grit in the finished dish must be avoided. Put them back on the half shell and arrange them in a flat fireproof dish. Cover each completely with the sauce. Sprinkle very lightly with more breadcrumbs and put under a hot grill for 2 minutes. This is essentially a stove-to-table dish. It cannot be prepared in advance, it cannot be kept waiting, and if it is cooked too long the oysters underneath their sauce will be uneatably tough.
Enough for two or three.
NETTOYAGE ET CUISSON DES MOULES
THE CLEANING AND COOKING OF MUSSELS
Put the mussels into a large bowl of cold water as soon as they arrive in the kitchen. If they are not to be used until next day, cover the bowl with a cloth and sprinkle salt on top. Keep them in a cool place. When it comes to cleaning them, discard all broken ones, any that are gaping open and any in which the two shells can be slid against each other: these last will be full of mud or sand, and will make all the others gritty. With a knife remove the beard, or seaweed-like bits protruding from the shell, scrape off any barnacles or limpets adhering to the mussels, scrub the shells and wash them in several waters until, at the final washing, the water comes out quite free from grit. Keep them in cold water during the whole process. Allow approximately 1 pints of mussels per person.
To cook, put them in a large wide pan with a large glass of dry cider or white wine to every quart, cook fairly fast until the mussels open and remove them as soon as they do so to a warmed tureen or bowl. When all are ready, strain the remaining stock through a muslin, return to the pan, heat it up again, pour over the mussels and add chopped parsley. Serve as quickly as possible, providing plenty of bread, deep plates, forks to extract the mussels from their shells, soup spoons for the juice and a bowl for the empty shells. This is the most primitive version of moules marinière and is only really successful with the small and tender mussels which are none too easy to find in towns.
MOULES À LA NORMANDE
MUSSELS WITH CREAM SAUCE
A grander version of moules marinière.
Melt 1 oz. of butter in a wide pan, add a shallot, parsley and a few celery leaves all coarsely chopped, then a large glass of dry cider or dry white wine. Add 3 quarts of cleaned mussels, cover the pan for the first few minutes, then remove the lid and take out the mussels as they open and transfer them to a warmed dish or tureen. Strain the remaining stock through muslin, return it to the pan and let it reduce by about half. Put about pint of double cream to boil in a small pan, so that it reduces and thickens, and meantime remove the empty half shells from the cooked mussels.
Add the boiling cream to the mussel stock, and off the fire stir in a good lump of butter. Pour bubbling hot over the mussels, add chopped parsley and serve quickly. For four people. One of the best wines to drink with mussels is a fresh clean Muscadet from the Loire.
MOULES EN BROCHETTES
MUSSELS ON SKEWERS
When very large mussels are available, try them cooked by the excellent method used at la Mère Nénette’s restaurant in Montpellier where this dish is one of the specialities; the brochettes are quite a bit of trouble to prepare, so I give quantities for two people only. You will need a dozen large mussels per person, so buy